Howard Taylor

OffshoreAlert has previously reported about the incomplete and materially inaccurate disclosures of River Capital Group Inc., a Delaware corporation operated from Bermuda with a Barbados insurer as its principal subsidiary, in its filings with the SEC in the United States, where its shares are listed on the OTC BB; Marty Steinberg, the Receiver for the fraudulently-operated Lancer group of hedge funds, recently filed two more civil complaints at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in an attempt to recover a total of $106,000 that he claims was illegally transferred out of Lancer to third-parties in 2003; An offshore reinsurer has taken action in the United States to enforce a judgment for US$347,576 it obtained against a U. S. firm at the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands; and Syrian-born arms dealer Monzer al-Kassar, an ex-business partner of the now-defunct, fraudulently-operated Imperial Consolidated Group, was arrested in Spain — where he lives — on June 7, 2007 after being indicted in the United States.

A Bahamas-based business operated by Mohamad Harajchi and his son, Michel Harajchi, that was exposed in the October 31, 2006 edition of OffshoreAlert has stopped accepting new business; Andreas Ihrke has agreed to be extradited from the United States to Germany, where he has been charged with fraud and falsification of documents; British newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported on December 23 that the U. K. Government “is set to announce within weeks an amnesty scheme for tax evaders who have stashed money in offshore bank accounts"; OffshoreAlert has uncovered a securities fraud complaint that was filed - and later dismissed - at the U. S. District Court for the District of Nevada in 2003 against a company that has featured prominently in the newsletter in recent months, Bermuda-based River Capital Limited; A Costa Rica-based brokerage firm has reached a settlement with the British Columbia Securities Commission after admitting to unregistered trading to B. C. residents; and Bancafe International Bank Ltd., which is the fifth largest unsecured creditors of bankrupt commodities broker Refco, with a claim for $204 million, had its operations closed by the Central Bank of Barbados, effective October 23, 2006.

A wannabe Bermuda insurer whose license application was turned down in 2004 has resurfaced in Barbados, where it has teamed up with a group whose principals include a convicted criminal. The Barbados Supervisor of Insurance issued an insurance license to River Reinsurance Limited on December 16, 2005. 

A publicly-listed company in the United States whose subsidiaries include an offshore insurer is being sued in New York by investors who claim they were victims of a $50 million securities fraud. Strategy International Insurance Group Inc., whose shares are currently trading on the Over-The-Counter Bulletin Board at just six cents per share, misrepresented its assets and concealed “material negative facts” about some of its “principal executives and directors” in a private placement memorandum, according to the plaintiffs, who include investment funds in the British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands. 

A New York-based attorney with a conviction for securities fraud is an insider in a penny stock firm controlled by the principals of Bermuda-based Lines Overseas Management, OffshoreAlert can reveal. The involvement of Edward Marvin Grushko casts further suspicion on River Capital Group Inc., which is raising money from the public by claiming it intends to operate as a Bermuda insurer without disclosing that two licensing applications were turned down by the Insurance Admissions Committee of the Bermuda Monetary Authority last year and that no further application has been made since then.

A penny stock firm controlled by the senior officers of Bermuda-based investment firm Lines Overseas Management reported a net loss of $778,928 for the 12 months ended December 31, 2004, according to its recent 10K filing with the SEC, increasing its deficit to $1.08 million.However, River Capital Group Inc.'s share price soared during the year, hitting a high of $6.50 on the Pink Sheets market, despite the firm having no full-time employees, no revenue and, some would say, no future.

Two weeks after our story on River Capital Group Inc. last month, the firm notified the SEC that Richard King "the Chairman of the Board of Directors, resigned from all of his positions with the registrant". No reason for King's decision was given in the filing, which was signed by RCGI's "President", Howard Taylor. An odd aspect of the September 21, 2004 filing was its description of King as the chairman, while the firm's previous SEC filing on August 23, 2004, stated that this position was held by Taylor, who was also President and CEO.

For the second time in seven years, a proposed reinsurer headed by former AON (Bermuda) boss Robin Spencer-Arscott has been turned down for an insurance license.The failed application to the Bermuda Monetary Authority was on behalf of River Reinsurance Ltd., which is owned by Bermuda-based River Capital Ltd.

Howard Taylor vs. Bermuda Forwarders Limited - Bermuda Supreme Court